Caravan to Dayton

Okay, here comes the Mecca of hamfests again this year ... the DAYTON HAMVENTION, on May 15-17 in Dayton, OH.

This is the biggest, grandest, bestest (sic) flea market of the year, and also per usual the QRP technical symposium called "Four Days in May" is conducted on the Thursday before the Hamvention, making it a 4-day long gala event.

The reason I'm writing this note, besides telling you a bit about Dayton and more about the FDIM QRP Symposium (http://qrp.cc.nd.edu/qrp-l/dayton/fdim98.html), is that JOE AND I will be driving out to Dayton together for the FDIM day and hamfest.

The N2APB/N2CXmobile is searching for others who might want to come along and make it a bit more of a club outing together. Travel is one of the tougher things to arrange (i.e., after the family is in agreement of your going!), and we're trying to make it easy for anyone wishing to come along with us. [Last year Paul KC2AHB, Vince WA2ECP, Joe and I all went to Dayton but we weren't able to do it all together ... how inefficient!]

As an added attraction (or distraction, depending on your perspective), both Joe and I are lined up as speakers of a couple of presentations during the full day of QRP technical talks that Thursday at the FDIM. We'll talk more about these soon, but it would be great to have more of an NJ-QRP presence there too. (Help defend against the tomatoes and pies that invariably get tossed :-).

So long story short, Joe and I are driving out on Wednesday 5/13, and will probably leave Dayton on Sunday morning 5/17. NOW'S THE TIME to start making plans, greasing the skids at home, and saving the pennies for the best QRP talks and flea market of your life!

I think the rooms cost around $70 per night, and there's plenty opportunity to double/triple/quadruple up to knock this lower. The FDIM only costs $10 to attend, and that's primarily for the full set of QRP symposium notes (*great* presentations, wait 'til you see them announced!!), so the QRP ARCI group is sponsoring and subsidizing nicely.

Let us know if you're interested. If there's a BIG interest, perhaps we could rent a larger QRPmobile ... wow, think of the hamfest goodies we can bring back in a bus!!!